Today's Personal Finance Stories

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CBS.MarketWatch.com

Ah, the glorious feeling of driving a brand-new car home from the dealership. There's that distinctive smell, the immaculately clean carpets, the finely tuned responsiveness of the accelerator under foot. But inevitably, it's like the song about seeing your child growing up: "Turn around and it's two, turn around and it's four, turn around and it's a jalopy collapsed on the garage floor." That's why auto buyers should make reliability ratings a key factor in deciding what vehicle to purchase. Our top story today looks at J.D. Powers' latest durability study and identifies carmakers with the best and worst records. Read it, along with a Shades of Green on how Realtors could take a lead from GM and grant homebuyers trial overnight stays and a profile of our Stockpicker of the Quarter Andy Pilara Jr., in today's Personal Finance pages.

When does that new car excitement fade? After the first oil change -- or the first payment?

J.D. Powers ranks autos reliability

Shades of Green: Mother of all hasty decisions

When it comes to bizarre consumer transactions, nothing tops the home-buying experience. See full story.

Stockpicker of the Quarter: Partners in grime

Andy Pilara, manager of the RS Partners Fund, Pilara rode three value stocks to an average 66 percent gain over a 13-week period to win our Stockpicker of the Quarter honor. See full story.

Pension-plan formula under federal review

The Bush administration is working on changing the way companies fund 32,000 traditional pension plans currently offered to U.S. workers. See full story.

Guru's Corner: Diversifying on a shoestring budget

Proper diversification goes well beyond the U.S. large-cap growth stocks that still dominate too many portfolios, Paul Merriman says. See full story.

Paul Farrell: Politics replaces rational investing

There once was a time when America's 95 million mutual-fund shareholders based their investment strategies in some measure on rational things like economic data, market trends, interest rates and corporate earnings. Those days are gone. See full story.

Marshall Loeb's Money Tip: Safeguards against ID theft

When a con artist uses your social security number or other financial information for fraudulent purposes and shatters your credit rating, you can be denied loans, jobs or insurance. Here's what to do to determine if you have been the victim of identity theft. See full story.

The Stockpickers: Leiber likes MDC, Ryland and La Quinta

The Alpine U.S. Real Estate Equity Fund is one of the oldest real estate funds around, but has an investment strategy very different from its peers. See full story.

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